Logos Bible Software
$100,000 Data Creation Fund

Overview

Logos Bible Software has set aside $100,000 to acquire publication rights to academic reference projects. Logos wants to promote the development of databases that facilitate Bible study and scholarly research in biblical languages. The fund is designed to encourage new projects designed specifically for electronic delivery and to accelerate the development of projects already underway.

Logos is accepting proposals through November 1, 2004 and will be announcing the list of funded projects at the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX on November 20th, 2004.

Publication Rights

The Fund is designed to advance biblical studies through an academic-commercial partnership. Logos seeks publication rights for data created by funded projects. Materials may be published electronically as stand-alone products, in print and electronic media, or integrated into existing databases.

Logos’ relationship to the funded projects will be similar to the relationship of a publisher to an author, providing payment in exchange for specific rights. Logos can provide software and electronic books to project participants as well as custom tools for data processing and editing.

Types of Proposals Sought

Be creative! Dream big! Logos will consider proposals from $500 to the whole $100,000 – as long as the resulting data advances biblical studies and can be complete by November 2006.

Both new and existing projects are eligible. Possible projects include:

Morphological or syntactic analysis of ancient texts.
Revision of classic reference works.
Linguistic analysis of texts.
Electronic transcription of previously unavailable texts.
New interlinear translations of ancient texts.
Genre or topic indexing of primary texts.
Alignments of ancient texts and modern translations.
New indices, collations, or bibliographies of specialized data.

Proposal Process

Inquiries and proposals should be emailed to datafund@logos.com. Proposals should have the following sections:

Project Title
Project Description
Explanation of the Project’s Value to Biblical Studies
Amount of Requested Funds (and percent needed at start of project)
Timeframe for Project Start and Completion
Names and Brief CV of Principal Researchers
Contact Information for Lead Researcher

Logos will respond with an acknowledgement and initial feedback within two weeks.

Background

Logos Bible Software is the largest developer of Bible software and a worldwide leader in multilingual electronic publishing. Logos partners with more than 100 publishers to make more than 3,800 electronic Bible study resources available to customers around the world. Logos technology is used in more than 180 countries in a dozen languages.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Are funds available before the project is completed?

A: Yes. Up to 50% of the allocated funds can be available at the start of the project. The funding schedule will be negotiated for each project separately.

Q: Who owns the data created during the project?

A: Copyright ownership is a negotiation point. Logos’ primary interest is simply commercial publication rights. Logos hopes to use the Fund to advance biblical studies and encourages scholarly publication related to funded projects.

Q: Can funds be used to support a research sabbatical?

A: Yes.

Q: Will Logos consider non-English projects?

A: Yes. Logos is very interested in considering projects that support study and use of biblical languages in Spanish and other languages.

Q: On what basis will proposals be judged?

A: The primary criterion for judging projects is the cost-benefit analysis for biblical studies. Logos welcomes large projects of benefit to a large audience as well as smaller projects of interest to a small audience. Very large projects of interest to a very small audience are less likely to be funded.

Logos is interested in projects in obscure or novel research areas, but these proposals will need stronger explanations of their value to biblical studies.

Logos Bible Software$100,000 Data Creation Fund